Bangkok (VNA) - During his official visit to Thailand on February 20, Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone and his Thai counterpart Paetongtarn Shinawatra agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation in various areas, including enhancing border security, addressing haze issues, and pursuing a joint trade target of 11 billion USD by 2027.
The two PMs witnessed the signing of four agreements, including a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on justice and legal affairs cooperation between Laos' Ministry of Justice and Thailand's Ministry of Justice; a technical arrangement for rail passenger transportation between the State Railway of Thailand (SRT) and the Lao National Railway State Enterprise; an MoU on academic cooperation between Mae Fah Luang University in Chiang Rai and Souphanouvong University in Laos; an MoU between Thailand’s Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking and the Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The two sides also agreed on strengthening bilateral cooperation in three broad areas.
The first area covers border security cooperation, with both agreeing to increase efforts against drug smuggling, support more cash crop production in Laos to replace narcotic plants and combat call centre scam gangs in both countries. It also includes increased information sharing to address cross-border haze pollution and expanding a telemetering network to cover more tributaries of the Mekong River in Laos for improved water management.
In the second area of cooperation, both countries agreed to adopt a new trade value target set at 1 billion USD by 2027.
For the third area, Thailand consented to provide Laos with more than 75 new scholarships, particularly in medicine and public health.
Both sides also agreed to work closely under the Mekong Sub-region and ASEA frameworks to tackle various challenges./.
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